Occupational cancer surveillance using the 1991-2006 Canadian Census Mortality & Cancer Cohort

There are approximately 60 well-established workplace carcinogens identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). However, there are over 100 industrial chemicals and other agents that are suspected to cause cancer, and many more have never been studied. Currently, Canada lacks any rapid, low cost means to assess whether there is an increased risk associated with an exposures, occupations or industries. The major challenge is that, although Canada registers every new cancer that is diagnosed, information on occupation and workplace exposures is not included in these records. Having a way to link occupation and industry data with data from the Canadian Cancer Registry would allow researchers to identify jobs or substances that carry an increased risk of cancer.

Statistics Canada linked data from the 1991 long form census to the Canadian Cancer Registry, a national database created with data from all the provincial and territorial tumour registries. The resulting database includes 2.7 million people. Analyses were undertaken to identify at-risk groups by occupation and industry, and to examine risks associated with certain occupational exposures.

These analyses contribute to the recognition of causes of cancer that can then be targeted for prevention efforts.

Linkage of the 1991 census to the Canadian Cancer Registry was funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Health Canada. Analyses were funded by a WSIB Research Advisory Council grant for 2012-2015.